Angie’s List Manipulates Reviews for a Fee, a Class Action Says

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Angie’s List was hit with with a deceptive marketing class action lawsuit alleging that the company manipulates the reviews for companies even though they are supposed to be honest and unbiased.

Angie’s List is a paid service, which provides reviews and ratings of various types of companies that provide services in a particular location, such as dentists, plumbers and auto mechanics.

Angie’s List customers may search the reviews on its website. The search results are supposed to be put in the order of companies with the best reviews and ratings to those with more negative ratings.

According to the Angie’s List deceptive marketing class action lawsuit filed by plaintiff Janell Moore, the company “falsely assures consumers that ‘service providers cannot influence their ratings on Angie’s List,’  ‘[b]usinesses don’t pay,’  and ‘[c]ompanies can’t pay to be on Angie’s List.’

Because of such statements, Moore says that customers are duped into thinking that the ratings and reviews on Angie’s list can be trusted.

However, “Angie’s List wrongfully conceals from consumers that service providers can and do pay to influence ‘the List’ in at least three significant ways, in exchange for paying substantial ‘advertising’ fees,” the Angie’s List class action lawsuit alleges.

This is allegedly done by giving companies “artificially higher rankings in search results,” suppressing negative reviews, and it allegedly tells companies it will suppress positive reviews if it does not pay advertising fees, the class action lawsuit states.

Moore says that he has been an Angie’s List paid member since 2012. Angie’s List began in 1995 as a company where customers could find “actual first-hand experiences other users have had with” various service providers and anonymous reviews are not permitted, as with other review services such as Yelp.

Moore alleges that she noticed the problem when he hired a contractor he found on Angie’s List to remodel her kitchen. At that time “there were no visible reviews.”

However, when the contractor walked away with $4,000 and did not complete the job, Moore wrote a negative review on Angie’s List.

“After doing so, [Moore] was able to see, for the first time, a number of other negative reviews of the contractor written earlier by other members prior to Plaintiff’s hiring the same contractor,” the class action lawsuit explains.

Reviewers complained about the same problem she had had.

Moore contacted Angie’s List about the issue and the “Angie’s List representative did not characterize the suppression of negative reviews as an oversight or a technological error. In fact, upon information and belief, it was because the service provider paid money to Angie’s List.”

Moore was also told by an electrician he hired “that he pays ‘to be at the top’ of search results” on Angie’s List.

It says in its Membership Agreement it “does not endorse and is not responsible or liable for any Content, Service Provider Content, data, advertising, products, goods or services available or unavailable from, or through, any Service Providers,” the class action lawsuit states.

However Moore alleges that “paying consumers are not getting ‘the List’ they are promised. Contrary to consumer expectations and Angie’s List’s representations, Angie’s List does not provide an unfiltered, consumer-driven service.

“Nor does Angie’s List rank search results based exclusively on consumer-generated reviews and ratings,” the Angie’s List class action lawsuit adds.

Moore alleges that it does not disclose to customers that service providers are allowed to pay a fee to Angie’s List to manipulate reviews and search results.

Moore is looking to represent a nationwide class and a Pennsylvania class of Angie’s List members.

He is charging Angie’s List with breach of contract, fraud, unjust enrichment, and with violating Pennsylvania’s Unfair Trade Practices Act and Consumer Protection Law.

Moore is represented by Richard M. Golomb, Ruben Honik, Kenneth J. Grunfeld and David J. Stanoch of Golomb & Honik PC.

Counsel information for Angie’s List was not immediately available.

The Angie’s List Deceptive Practices Class Action Lawsuit is Moore et al. v. Angie’s List Inc., case number 2:15-cv-01243, in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

UPDATE: The Angie’s List search manipulation class action settlement is now open! Click here to file a claim!

UPDATE 2: On May 30, 2017, Top Class Actions viewers who filed valid claims for the Angie’s List search manipulation class action settlement started receiving checks in the mail.